Tallinn makes U-turn over parking fees hike
The Tallinn City Council did not support the City Government's plan to rise parking fees in the city center from January 2016. The Center Party, which holds the reins in Tallinn, failed to secure enough support for the bill, when some of its legates decided not to turn up for the vote.
In November, the Tallinn City Government announced its plans to rise hourly and monthly parking fees by up to 60 percent in some zones.
According to Hanno Matto (SDE), head of the City Council's Auditing Committee, the plan failed because several Center Party councilmen, who did not support the parking fee bill but did not want to break party ranks either, chose not to attend the vote. “This was enough for the bill, which needed a majority support to come into force, to be rejected,” he explained.
The Tallinn City Council has 79 members, 46 of whom belong to the Center Party faction. The bill needed 40 votes to pass, but only got 39.
The rates in all of Tallinn's three parking zones will now stay the same. They have not risen since 2007.
Editor: M. Oll